EIE 3333 Data and Computer Communications

Tutorial 8
Unit 8: Wireless LANs and Switching Networks

Review Questions

1. What is the hidden terminal problem in wireless environment?

2. What is the difference between CSMA/CD and CSMA/CA?
3. Can we simply do collision detection in wireless environment like the wired
environment?
4. What are the major steps in CSMA/CA?
5. What is the purpose of NAV in CSMA/CA?
6. There is no acknowledgement mechanism in CSMA/CD, but we need this mechanism
in CSMA/CA. Explain the reason.
7. What is the difference between a BSS and an ESS?
8. What is the difference between circuit switching and packet switching?
9. What is the store-and-forward delay in packet switching?

Problems

1. Suppose the IEEE 802.11 RTS and CTS frames were as long as the standard DATA and
ACK frames. Would there be any advantage to using the CTS and RTS frames? Why or
why not?

2. An AP in a wireless network plays the same role as a link-layer switch in a wired network.
However, a link-layer switch has no MAC address, but an AP normally needs a MAC
address. Explain the reason.

3. In an 802.11 communication, the size of the payload is 1200 bytes. The station decides to
fragment the frame into three fragments, each of 400 payload bytes.

a) What would be the size of the data frame if no fragmentations were done?
b) What is the size of each frame after fragmentation?
c) How many total bytes are sent after fragmentation (ignoring the extra control frames)?
d) How many extra bytes are sent because of fragmentation (again ignoring the extra
control frames)?

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4. In the following figure, two wireless networks, BSS1 and BSS2, are connected through a
wired distribution system (DS), an Ethernet LAN. Assume station A in BSSl needs to send
a data frame to station C in BSS2. Show the value of addresses in 802.11 and 802.3 frames
for three transmissions: from station A to APl, from APl to AP2, and from AP2 to station
C. Note that the communication between APl and AP2 occurs in a wired environment.

5. Define the following parameters for a switching network:

N = number of hops between two given end systems
L = message length in bits
B = data rate, in bits per second (bps), on all links
P = fixed packet size, in bits
H = overhead (header) bits per packet
S = call setup time (circuit switching or virtual circuit) in seconds
D = propagation delay per hop in seconds

a. For N = 4, L = 3200, B = 9600, P = 1024, H = 16, S = 0.2, D = 0.001, compute the

end-to-end delay for circuit switching, virtual circuit packet switching, and datagram
packet switching. Assume that there are no acknowledgments. Ignore processing
delay at the nodes.

b. Derive general expressions for the three techniques of part (a), taken two at a time
(three expressions in all), showing the conditions under which the delays are equal.

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